P35 
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AR INFORMATION SERIES 



No. 1 



June, 1917 



THE WAR MESSAGE 
AND FACTS BEHIND IT 



ANNOTATED TEXT OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S 
MESSAGE, APRIL 2, 1917 




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Published by. COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION, Washington. D. C. 



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FOREWORD. 

THE "War Message" of President Wilson, delivered before Congress on April 2d, 
1917, voices the best ideals and aspirations of the American people. It sets 
forth in language of dignity and moderation, but with unmistakable indignation and 
emphasis, the grievous wrongs which have made the United States take up arms 
against Germany. It makes very plain, even to the hitherto unconvinced, why at 
the present general crisis it is the duty of all good Americans to enter this war, "that 
the world may be made safe for democracy." 

In other words, Mr. Wilson's message is the best possible preparation for all loyal 
Americans who are studying the causes and justification for the present war, and who 
are trying, to discover the proper mental attitude they themselves should take toward 
the personal part which they may be called to play in the struggle. 

Nevertheless, although the President was speaking in general to all good Ameri- 
cans, he was addressing, for the moment, Congress in particular. Now men at Wash- 
ington, devoting all their time to public affairs, and most of them favored by long 
residence there and by special opportunities for information, did not need to be told 
of the many things which were not so obvious to even very intelligent citizens at 
home — at least unless the latter were willing to spend considerable time in various 
forms of investigation. Consequently Mr. Wilson speaks of a good many matters 
that need amplifying details if they are to be entirely clear, and he draws a number 
of inferences, very sound indeed, but again sometimes not self-explanatory to busy 
men and women. Also, here and there, he contrasts the American and Prussian 
political philosophy and methods of doing things in a way that would become even 
more convincing if he had been allowed time to enter into specific details. Solemn 
official promises made only to be broken, conspiracies to burn and blow up American 
industries, to hamper our manufactures and cripple our Government by strikes and 
iots, spies in every center of political and industrial activity, plans made on Ameri- 
can soil and financed by German funds to dynamite canals, bridges, and munition 
factories in Canada, invitations to Mexico in times of peace to join with Germany 
in dismembering our Union, have led people and President alike to see submarine 
warfare as but a more flagrant expression of a German state policy running amuck 
in absolute disregard of every sense of national and international morals and decency 
and callous to the claims of common humanity. 

A military autocracy astride the ruins of Europe and dominant on the seas by 
virtue of an arm that both serves and reveals its ambitions and irresponsibility has 
forced America to accept its challenge. A new Monroe Doctrine must be defended 
on the pathways of the seas and in the fields of Flanders if the Western World is to 
be preserved as the citadel of a free-developing, forward-looking democracy. 

This annotated copy of the President's message has been prepared in the hope that 
it may make clearer the spirit and the facts back of a decision so momentous. 

Many of the facts are very familiar to most Americans, but the effort has been to 
bring together in one place the chief lines of evidence which made Mr. Wilson say that 
he felt it his duty to urge Congress to declare that "the recent course of the German 
Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the United States." Very 
many of the documents quoted in these notes have the highest official validity, and 
almost none of the facts mentioned are capable of dispute by any fair-minded person. 
5340°— 17 3 



4 FOREWORD. 

Taken all in all, these facts, supporting the message, and many more that of course 
could be added, constitute something like "the case for America against Germany," 
and Americans after examining this case may rest well assured that their cause will 
be justified by the calm, impartial verdict of later-day history. 

The plan and much of the work are due to Prof. "William Stearns Davis, of the 
history department of the University of Minnesota. He was very materially assisted 
by his colleagues, Prof. C. D. Allin and Dr. Wm. Anderson. Whether this evidence 
is valid can be tested by anybody with access to a good public library, for no secret 
documents have been used. The annotations represent a wholly volunteer service 
on the part of competent and patriotic scholars. 

The Committee on Public Information has had the assistance of the National Board 
for Historical Sendee in editing the manuscript. 

The Committee believes that pending the appearance of a more elaborate and official 
Government statement, the publication of this annotated copy of the President's 
address will serve a real national purpose. 

Copies of this document and of other publications may be had free on request. 

For the Committee on Public Information. 

Guy Stanton Ford, 
Director of the Division on Civic and Educational Cooperation. 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 



Gentlemen of the Congress: 

I have called the Congress into extraordinary session 
because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy * to 
be made, and made immediately, which it is neither right 
nor constitutionally permissible 2 that I should assume the 
responsibility of making. 

1 There had been only two other periods in the history of the country equally seri- 
ous — 1776 and 1861. Nobody can pretend that there have been any other crises in 
American history (barring the Revolution and the Civil War) when so much that citi- 
zens of this country count dear has been at stake. The War of 1812, the Mexican and 
Spanish Wars, seem as child's play beside the present exigency. Now, as this message 
makes clear, the very liberties of the world and the possibilities of peaceful democracies 
are at stake. If Germany should win this war, and thus become supreme on land and 
sea, the very existence of free democracies would be imperiled. 

2 President Wilson had the sworn duty to lay the facts before Congress and recom- 
mend to it the needful action. The Constitution of the United States prescribes his 
duties in such emergencies. 

It is worthy of note that the Constitution lays this duty and power of declaring war 
directly upon Congress, and that it can not be evaded by Congressmen by any refer- 
endum to the voters, for which not the slightest constitutional provision is made. 

Congress performed this duty by voting on the war question as requested. The 
vote of the Senate was 82 to 6 for war; of the House 373 to 50. Such comparative 
unanimity upon so momentous a question is almost unparalleled in the history of free 
nations. 

On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the 
extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment, that on and after the 1st day of February it was its 
purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and 
use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to 
approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or 
the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled 
by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. 3 
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine 
warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year the 
Imperial Government had somewhat restrained the com- 
manders of its undersea craft, in conformity with its promise, 



6 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

then given to us, 4 that passenger boats should not be sunk, 
and that due warning would be given to all other vessels 
which its submarines might seek to destroy, when no resis- 
tance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that 
their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their 
lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were 
meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing 
instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and 
unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was 
observed. 5 

3 The German Chancellor in announcing this repudiation of all his solemn pledges 
in the Imperial Parliament (Reichstag), on January 31, frankly admitted that this 
policy involved " ruthlessness " toward neutrals. "When the most ruthless methods 
are considered the best calculated to lead us to victory and to a swift victory * * * 
they must be employed. * * * The moment has now arrived. Last August 
[when he was, as he himself here admits, allowing the American people to believe 
that in response to its protest he had laid aside such ruthless methods] the time was 
not yet ripe, but to-day the moment has come when, with the greatest prospect of 
success, we can undertake this enterprise." 

4 The broken Sussex pledge. On May 4, 1916, the German Government, in reply 
to the protest and warning of the United States following the sinking of the Sussex, 
gave this promise: That "merchant vessels both within and without the area declared 
a naval war zone shall not be sunk without warning, and without saving human lives, 
unless the ship attempt to escape or offer resistance. ' ' 

Germany added, indeed, that if Great Britain continued her blockade policy, she 
would have to consider "a new situation." 

On May 8, 1916, the United States replied that it could not admit that the pledge 
of Germany was " in the slightest degree contingent upon the conduct of any other 
Government" (i. e., on any question of the English blockade). To this Germany 
made no reply at all, and under general diplomatic usage, when one nation makes a 
statement to another, the latest statement of the case stands as final unless there is a 
protest made. 

The promise made by Germany thus became a binding pledge, and as such was torn 
up with other "scraps of paper" by the German "unlimited submarine warfare" 
note of January 31, 1917. 

5 As to the proper usages in dealing with merchant vessels in war, here are the rules 
laid down some time ago for the American Navy (a fighting navy, surely), and these 
rules hardly differed in other navies, including the Russian and Japanese: 

United States Naval War Code, now in preparation, retains and amplifies the 
following provisions of the Code published in 1900 (p! 48): 

" The personnel of a merchant vessel captured as a prize * * * are entitled to 
their personal effects. 

"All passengers not in the service of the enemy, and all women and children on 
board such vessels should be released and landed at a convenient port at the first 
opportunity. 

"Any person in the naval service of the United States who pillages or maltreats 
in any manner, any person found on board a merchant vessel captured as a prize, 
shall be severely punished. " 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 7 

United States Naval War College, International Law Topics, 1905, page 62: "If a 
seized neutral vessel can not for any reason be brought into court for adjudication it 
should be dismissed." 

United States Naval War Code, on safety required for persons on a captured vessel 
(United States Naval War College, International Law Topics, 1913, p. 165): "The 
destruction of a vessel which has surrendered without first removing its officers and 
crew would be an act contrary to the sense of right which prevails even between 
enemies in time of war." 

And also Lawrence (standard authority on international law), International Law, 
1910 edition, page 484: "It is better for a naval officer to release a ship as to which 
he is doubtful than to risk personal punishment and international complications by 
destroying innocent property." 

The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels 
of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their 
cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly 
sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of 
help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly 
neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital 
ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and 
stricken people of Belgium, 6 though the latter were provided 
with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the German 
Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable 
marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless 
lack of compassion or of principle. 

6 Mr. Wilson was undoubtedly thinking of the cases of the British hospital ships 
Asturias sunk March 20, and the Gloucester Castle. These vessels had been sunk 
although protected by the most solemn possible of international compacts. The 
Germans seem to have acknowledged the sinking of the Asturias and to have regarded 
their feat with great complacency. Somewhat earlier in the war the great liner 
Britannic had been sunk while in service as a hospital ship, and the evidence seems 
to be it was torpedoed by a U-boat, although the proof here is not conclusive. Since 
this message was written the Germans have continued their policy of murdering more 
wounded soldiers and their nurses by sinking more hospital ships. 

The Belgian relief ships referred to were probably the Camilla, Trevier, and the 
Feisiein, but most particularly the large Norwegian steamer Storstad, sunk with 10,000 
tons of grain for the starving Belgians. Besides these sinkings, two other relief ships — 
the Tunisie and the Haelen — were attacked unsuccessfully. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would in fact be done by any Government that had hitherto 
subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. 7 
International law had its origin in the attempt to set up 
some law which would be respected and observed upon the 
seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where lay 
the free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage 
has that law been built up with meager enough results, 



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8 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accom- 
plished, but always with a clear view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of mankind demanded. 

7 No nation assuredly has made prouder claims than Germany to a superior ' ' kultur, ' ' 
or made louder assertions of its desire to vindicate "the freedom of the seas." 

This minimum of right the German Government has swept 
aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because 
it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these, 
which it is impossible to employ, as it is employing them, 
without throwing to the wind all scruples of humanity or of 
respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie 
the intercourse of the world. 

I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, 
immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and 
wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, 
women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, 
even in the darkest periods of modern history, 8 been deemed 
innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives 
of peaceful and innocent people can not be. The present 
German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare 
against mankind. 

8 Mr. Wilson could have gone further back than "modern history." 
Even in the most troubled period of the Middle Ages there was consistent effort to 
spare the lives of nonbelligerents. Thus in the eleventh century not merely did the 
church enjoin the "truce of God" which ordered all warfare to cease on four days 
of the week, but it especially pronounced its curse upon those who outraged or in- 
jured not merely clergymen and monks, but all classes of women. We also have 
ordinances from this "dark period" of history forbidding the interference with shep- 
herds and their flocks, the damaging of olive trees, or the carrying off or destruction 
of farming implements. All this at a period when feudal barons are alleged to have 
been waging their wars with unusual ferocity. 

Contrast also with the German usages this American instance: 

On May 12, 1898, Admiral Sampson with the American fleet appeared before San 
Juan, P. E., and conducted a reconnoissance in force to see if Cervera's squadron was 
in the port, but he did not " subject the city to a regular bombardment" because that 
"would have required due notice" for the removal of the women, children, and the 
sick. He did this notwithstanding the fact that a sudden attack, well driven home, 
would probably have given him the city. In the attack on the forts alone, which he 
actually made, his ship captains were carefully charged to avoid hitting the Spanish 
military hospital. (See H. Doc. No. 12, 55th Cong., 3d sess., p. 368.) 

No one certainly has ever accused the American Navy of "hitting soft" or of being 
unwilling to wage the most strenuous kind of honorable warfare. 



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THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 9 

It is a war against all nations. American ships have 
been sunk, 9 American lives taken, 10 in ways which it has 
stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people 
of other neutral and friendly nations 11 have been sunk and 
overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has 
been no discrimination. 

9 American vessels sunk by submarines following German decree of ruthless sub- 
marine policy, Jan. 31, 1917. 

Following eight or more American vessels which had been sunk or attacked earlier, 
in most cases in contravention to international law, these ships also had been sunk 
following the repudiation of her pledges by Germany: 

February 3, 1917., Housatonic. 

February 13, 1917, Lyman M. Law. 

March 16, 1917, Vigilancia. 

March 17, 1917, City of Memphis. 

March 17, 1917, Illinois. 

March 21, 1917, Healdton (claimed to have been sunk off Dutch coast, and far from 
the so-called "prohibited zone.") 

April 1, 1917, Aztec. 

March 2, 1917, Algonquin. 

Furthermore, no American should forget the sinking of the William P. Frye on 
January 28, 1915, by a German raider. This act under normal circumstances would 
be a casus belli. The raider, the Prim Eitel Friedrich, then impudently took refuge 
in an American port. 

10 American lives lost on the ocean during the war. (See Cong. Rec, 65th Cong., 
1st sess., p. 1006.) 

American lives have been lost during the sinking of at least 20 vessels, whereof 4 
were American, 1 Dutch, and 1 Norwegian. In one or two cases the vessel tried to 
escape and made resistance, and the loss of life was possibly excusable for the Germans. 
In the bulk of the cases the destruction was without fair warning and without reason- 
able effort to give the passengers and crew chance to escape. 

Among the more flagrant cases were: 

May 7, 1915, Lusitania, 114 Americans lost. 

August 19, 1915, Arabic, 3 Americans lost. 

September 4, 1915, Hesperian, 1 American lost. 

October 28, 1916, Marina, 8 Americans lost. 

December 14, 1916, Russian, 17 Americans lost. 

February 26, 1917, Laconia, 8 Americans lost. 

March 16, 1917, Vigilancia, 5 Americans lost (United States). 

March 21, 1917, Healdton, 7 Americans lost (United States). 

April 1, 1917, Aztec, 28 Americans lost (United States). 

Some on Aztec probably not American citizens, although she was a regular American 
ship. 

In all, up to declaration of war by us, 226 American citizens, many of them women 
and children, had lost their lives by the action of German submarines, and in most 
instances without the faintest color of international right. 

11 The Norwegian Legation at London has announced that during February and 
March, 1917, 105 Norwegian vessels of over 228,000 tons have been sunk, and 106 
persons thereon killed, and 222 are missing. 

On February 22, 1917, seven Dutch vessels which left an English port on promise 
of "relative security" from the Berlin authorities were all attacked by German 
5340°— 17— 2 



10 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

U-boats and six of them were sunk. Germany has admitted that its boats did the 
deed, and has expressed "regrets" to Holland, although adding blandly "the inci- 
dent proves how dangerous it is to navigate the prohibited zone, and gives expression 
to our wish that neutral navigators remain in their ports." As a result of this policy 
of terrorism, the ships of Holland have been practically driven off the seas. Many 
of them have taken refuge in harbors of the United States. 

Spaniards have been exasperated by the destruction of their vessels, the most 
recent instance being that of a Spanish ship, with a Spanish cargo, sunk in Spanish 
waters. Swedish over-sea commerce is practically ruined by the fear of their owners 
at the indiscriminate ruthlessness of the submarine. 

The United States Government made an official estimate that by April 3, 1917, 
no less than 686 neutral vessels had been sunk by German submarines since the 
beginning of the war. This did not include any American vessels. (New York 
Times History of the War, May, 1917, pp. 239 and 241.) 

The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide 
for itself how it will meet it. 12 The choice we make for our- 
selves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a 
temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our 
motives as a Nation. We must put excited feelings away. 
Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion 
of the physical might of the Nation, but only the vindi- 
cation of right, 13 of human right, of which we are only a 
single champion. 

12 Practically all the civilized neutral countries of the earth have protested at the 
German policy. Some, like Brazil, China, Bolivia, and Guatemala, have broken 
diplomatic relations with Germany. 

The neutral states of Europe, fearful of being caught in the horrors of the great war, 
have protested just as far as they have dared. Holland and Denmark may, of course, 
at any time see a German Army over their borders. Norway and Sweden are hardly 
in a safe position, but they have made their vehement protest at the German out- 
rages. Spain, which had exercised a forbearance similar to that of the United States, 
has finally, after futile protests, been obliged (May 18, 1917) to send Germany a note 
in the nature of an ultimatum, demanding reparation for the past and guaranties 
for the future. 

13 Submarines are such exceptional instruments of warfare that it is held by authori- 
ties on international law that they ought never to submerge in neutral waters, other- 
wise it is impossible for a neutral to control them and be responsible for them as with 
ordinary visiting warships. 

Says Prof. Theodore S. Woolsey, of Yale, a very high authority: 
" * * * I think there can be no doubt that the U-boat is to be regarded as a 
surface cruiser with no additional rights and privileges and with the same duties 
and liabilities. Hence in neutral waters it should not submerge. Submergence 
imperils neutrality by making the performance of neutral duties more arduous and the 
evasion of neutral rights easier." (American Journal of International Law, January, 
1917, p. 139.) 

When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February 
last I thought it would suffice to assert our neutral rights 



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THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 11 

with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful inter- 
ference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful 
violence. But armed neutrality, it now appears, is im- 
practicable. 14 Because submarines are in effect outlaws, 
when used as the German submarines have been used against 
merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against 
their attacks, as the law of nations has -assumed that mer- 
chantmen would defend themselves against privateers or 
cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. It is 
common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity 
indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have 
shown their own intention. They must be dealt with upon 
sight, if dealt with at all. 

14 In 1798, on account of the attacks on our commerce by French cruisers and 
privateers, Congress empowered President John Adams to arm merchant vessels, to 
let them defend themselves, and to let our warships attack the offending French 
vessels. 

There were several really serious naval battles (especially when the U. S. S. Con- 
stellation took the French frigate L'Insurgente, 1799), and international experts are 
of the opinion that very probably an actual state of war existed. In any case the 
country was headed straight into war, and preparations were being made to raise a 
strong army with Washington again as commander. Then at the last moment, 
Napoleon, who had just come to power, had the wisdom to offer terms President 
Adams could accept. The German Imperial Government had no such wisdom or 
restraint. 

The German Government denies the right of neutrals to 
use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has pro- 
scribed even in the defense of rights which no modem 
publicist has ever before questioned 15 their right to defend. 
The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which 
we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as 
beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at 
best; in such circumstances and in the face of such pre- 
tensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely only to pro- 
duce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain 
to draw us into war without either the rights or the effec- 
tiveness of belligerents. There is one choice we can not 
make, we are incapable of making: we will not choose the 
path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of 
our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. 16 The 



12 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no com- 
mon wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life. 

15 Before the outbreak of the war the following were the standing orders in the 
German Navy for dealing with even enemy merchant vessels, and if that was the case 
how much more consideration should be given to neutrals. The new German orders 
are a brazen contradiction of their own previous precepts. 

General orders of German Admiralty staff, Berlin, June 22, 1914. (Note date.) 

" If an armed enemy merchant vessel offers armed resistance . . . such resistance 
is to be overcome with all means available. . . . The crew are to be taken prison- 
ers of war. The passengers are to be left to go free unless it appears that they par- 
ticipated in the resistance." (German Prize Code, p. 75, par. 116.) 

"Before proceeding to the destruction of the [neutral] vessel [which has been seized 
for proper reason], the safety of all persons on board, and, so far as possible, their 
effects, is to be provided for ..." {German Prize Code, p. 68.) 

Dr. Wehberg (great German authority on international law, quoted in American 
Journal of Int. Law, Oct. 1916, p. 871). 

"The enemy merchant ship has the right of defense against enemy attack, and 
this right it can exercise against 'visit' (i. e., being stopped and investigated), for 
this indeed is the first act of capture. The attacked merchant ship can indeed itself 
seize the overpowered warship as a prize." 

And still again — 

In Oxford, 1913, at a meeting of the Institute of International Law, at which the 
representatives of Germany, as well as of all other great nations, were present, it was 
decided as a firm principle that private vessels may not commit acts of hostility 
against the enemy and that they may defend themselves against the attack of an 
enemy vessel. (American Journal of International Laiv, vol. 10, 1916, p. 868.) 

16 Eight of American citizens to protection in their doings abroad and on the seas 
no less than at home. Decided by Supreme Court of United States. (Slaughter 
House Cases, 16 Wall., 36.) 

"Every citizen . . . may demand the care and protection of the United States when 
on the high seas or within the jurisdiction of a foreign Government." 

See Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law, third edition, page 273 (standard 
authority). 

Obviously a Government which can not or will not protect its citizens against a 
policy of lawless murder is unworthy of respect abroad or obedience at home. The 
protection of the lives of the innocent and law-abiding is clearly the very first duty 
of a civilized state. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical 
character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsi- 
bilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to 
what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Con- 
gress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to be in fact nothing less than war against the 
Government and people of the United States; 17 that it 
formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus 
been thrust upon it; and that it take immediate steps not 
only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense, 
but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 13 

to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms 
and end the war. 

17 Wars do not have to be declared in order to exist. The mere commission of war- 
like or unfriendly acts commences them. Thus the first serious clash in the Mexican 
war took place April 24, 1846. Congress "recognized" the state of war only on May 
11 of that year. Already Gen. Taylor had fought two serious battles at Palo Alto and 
Resaca de la Palma. 

Many other like cases could be cited; the most recent was the outbreak of the war 
between Japan and Russia. In 1904 the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet before 
Port Arthur, and only several days after this battle was war "recognized." 

If the acts of Germany were unfriendly war in the strictest sense existed when the 
President addressed Congress. 

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost 
practicable cooperation in counsel and action with the Gov- 
ernments now at war with Germany, and as incident to that, 
the extension to those Governments of the most liberal 
financial credits, in order that our resources may so far as 
possible be added to theirs. 

It will involve the organization and mobilization of all 
the material resources of the country to supply the materials 
of war and serve the incidental needs of the Nation in the 
most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient 
way possible. 

It will involve the immediate full equipment of the Navy 
in all respects, but particularly in supplying it with the 
best means of dealing with the enemy's submarines. 

It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces 
of the United States, 18 already provided for by law in case 
of war, of at least 500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, 
be chosen upon the principle of universal liability to service, 
and also the authorization of subsequent additional incre- 
ments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and can 
be handled in training. 

It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate 
credits 18 to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as 
they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, 
by well-conceived taxation. 

18 Bills passed by Congress, with dates on which they were presented to President: 
Apr. 5. S. J. Res. 1. .Declaration of war. 

17. H. R. 12 Deficiency appropriation bill for the year ending June, 1917. 

23. H. R. 2782... Bond-issue bill. 

23. H. R. 2339... Increasing number of midshipmen at Annapolis. 



14 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

Apr. 23. H. R. 2008. . .Extending minority enlistments in the .Navy. 

23. H. R. 2338. . .Authorizing additional officers for Hydrographic Office. 
23. H. R. 2300. . .Increasing age limit for officers in Naval Reserve. 
23. H. R. 1771. . .Amending naval appropriations act for the year ending June, 
1917. 
May 5. H. R. 2893 . . .Permitting foreign governments to enlist their nationals resid- 
ing in the United States. 

10. S. J. Res. 42. .Authorizing seizure of interned German ships. 

11. H. R. 13 Army appropriation bill for the year ending June, 1918. 

15. H. R. 2337. . .Enrollments of aliens in the Naval Reserve. 

16. H. R. 3330. . .Increasing Navy and Marine Corps to 150,000 men. 
18. S. 1871 Conscription bill. 

Bills in conference on May 17: 

Apr. 16. H. R. 11 Sundry civil appropriations for the year ending June, 1918. 

16. H. R. 10 Military Academy appropriations for the year ending June, 

1918. 

May 15. S. 2 Espionage bill. 

Bills awaiting action of one House: 
S. 383 Passed Senate Apr. 9, punishing the destruction of war ma- 
terial. 

H. R. 328 Passed House May 9, car shortage. 

H. R. 3971 Passed House May 2, special war appropriation bill. 

I say sustained so far as may be ecfuitable by taxation, 
because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base 
the credits, which will now be necessary, entirely on money 
borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to pro- 
tect our people, so far as we may, against the very serious 
hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the 
inflation which would be produced by vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which these things are to 
be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the 
wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own prepara- 
tion and in the equipment of our own military forces with 
the duty — for it will be a very practical duty — of supplying 
the nations already at war with Germany with the materials 
which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. 
They are in the field, and we should help them in every way 
to be effective there. 19 

19 To anyone who will reflect upon the subject, it will soon appear to be preposterous 
folly to suggest that we "go it alone " against Germany, and to fail to give all possible 
aid to her original enemies. Obviously unless we send munitions, troops, submarine 
chasers, etc., to France, England, and possibly Russia, since the German high-sea 
fleet does not at present come out, the war for us will mean little more than calling 
names across the Atlantic — until the European war is ended, and then if Germany 
has a pound of strength left (and very possibly she might be victorious) she can vent 
on us all her hate and fury, and exact from us the indemnities she can not wring from 
a bankrupt Europe. 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 15 

So obvious is the military necessity of giving every possible help to the present 
enemies of Germany that those who try to thwart this are almost open to the very 
grave criminal charge of giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several 
executive departments of the Government, for the consid- 
eration of your committees, measures for the accomplish- 
ment of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that 
it will be your pleasure to deal with them as having been 
framed after very careful thought by the branch of the 
Government upon whom the responsibility of conducting 
the war and safeguarding the Nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, 
let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world, what 
our motives and our objects are. My own thought has not 
been driven from its habitual and normal course by the 
unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe 
that the thought of the Nation has been altered or clouded 
by them. I have exactly the same things in mind now that 
I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the 2 2d of 
January last; the same that I had in mind when I addressed 
Congress on the 3d of February and on the 26th of February. 20 

20 On January 22 Mr. Wilson spoke in favor of a league to secure peace. On Feb- 
ruary 3 he announced he had broken diplomatic relations with Germany, but ex- 
pressed the earnest hope that issues would not- proceed to a clash of arms. On Feb- 
ruary 26 he asked for "armed neutrality," but still avoided an actual state of war. 

Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of 
peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish 
and autocratic power, and to set up among the really free 
and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of 
purpose and of action as will henceforth insure the observance 
of those principles. 

Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the 
peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, 
and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the exist- 
ence of autocratic governments, 21 backed by organized force 
which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of 
their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such 
circumstances. We are at the beginning of an age in which 
it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and 
of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among 



16 THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 

nations and their governments that are observed among the 
individual citizens of civilized states. 22 

21 Contrast these two standards: Bethmann-Hollweg addressing the Reichstag, 
August 4, 1914: 

"We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law. Our troops have 
occupied (neutral) Luxemburg and perhaps already have entered Belgium territory. 
Gentlemen, this is a breach of international law. The wrong — I speak openly — the 
wrong we hereby commit we will try to make good as soon as our military aims have 
been attained. 

"He who is menaced as we are, and is fighting for his highest possession, can only 
consider how he is to hack his way through. " 

Or Frederick the Great again, the arch prophet of Prussianism, speaking in 1740 
and giving the keynote to all his successors, "The question of right is an affair of 
ministers. * * * It is time to consider it in secret, for the orders to my troops 
have been given," and still, again, "Take what you can; you are never wrong unless 
you are obliged to give back." (Perkins, France under Louis X V, vol. 1, pp. 169-170.) 

Against this set the words of the first President of the Young American Republic, 
speaking at a time when the Nation was so weak that surely any kind of shifts 
could have been justified on the score of necessity. 

Said George Washington in his first inaugural address (1789): 

"... the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immu- 
table principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be 
exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and 
command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction 
which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thor- 
oughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an 
indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; 
between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid 
rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that 
the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards 
the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the 
preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of 
government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experi- 
ment intrusted to the hands of the American people." 

The present war is for a large part being waged to settle whether the American or 
the Prussian standard of morality is valid. 

22 The autocratic spirit of the German Emperor is clearly revealed in his own 
utterances (cf. p. 17). The Imperial Government is in form a government by the 
Emperor and the Imperial Diet. The dominant factor in the latter is the Federal 
Council (Bundesrat), appointed by the kings and princes. Here as King of Prussia, 
William II can make or break any policy. Prussia is the controlling factor, political, 
economic, and military, in modern Germany. In area it constitutes two-thirds of 
Germany, and five-eighths of its population and two-thirds of the members of the 
lower house of the German Congress are Prussians. Within Prussia there is little 
limit on the power of William II. In a constitution which his great-uncle ' ' decreed " 
in 1850 the rights of the King and of the "Junkers" (the feudal military nobles east 
of the Elbe) are carefully guarded. 

The constitution of Prussia has remained practically unchanged and the electoral 
districts and three class voting system of nearly 70 years ago still exist. Liberal 
industrial and socialistic elements in the great modern cities and manufacturing 
areas are without adequate representation in the Prussian Diet, and the old country 
districts are practically "rotten boroughs" where the peasant who votes by voice, 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 17 

not written ballot, is at the mercy of his feudal noble landlord. It is the latter 
who back the throne and its autocratic power so long as the policy suits their narrow 
provincial militaristic views formed in the days of Frederick the Great and his despotic 
father and revived and glorified by Bismarck. 

We have no quarrel with the German people. We have 
no feeling toward them but one of sympathy and friendship. 
It was not upon their impulse that their government acted 
in entering the war. 23 It was not with their previous knowl- 
edge or approval. 24 It was a war determined upon as wars 
used to be determined upon in the old unhappy days, when 
peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars 
were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties 25 
or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed 
to use their fellow men as pawns and tools. 

23 When the crisis was precipitated late in July, 1914, there was a strong peace- 
party in Germany, and earnest protests were made against letting Austrian aggres- 
sion against Serbia start a world conflagration. In Berlin on July 29, 28 mass meet- 
ings were held to denounce the proposed war, and one of them is said to have been 
attended by 70,000 men. The Vorwaerts (the great organ of the socialists) declared 
on that day, "the indications proved beyond a doubt that the camarilla of war lords 
is working with absolutely unscrupulous means to carry out their fearful designs 
to precipitate an international war and to start a world-wide fire to devastate Europe. " 
On the 31st this same paper asserted that the policy of the German Government 
was "utterly without conscience." Then came the declaration of "war emergency" 
(Kriegsgefahr) , mobilization, martial law, and any expression of public opinion was 
stilled in Germany. 

24 The German people had not the slightest share in shaping the events which led 
up to the declaration of war. The German Emperor is clothed by the imperial con- 
stitution with practically autocratic power in all matters of foreign policy. The 
Reichstag has not even a consultative voice in such matters. The German constitu- 
tion (art. 11) gives to the Emperor specific power to "declare war, conclude peace, 
and enter into alliances." The provision that only defensive wars may be declared 
by the Emperor alone puts the power in his hands to declare this and any other war 
without consulting any but the military group, for no power in modern times has 
ever admitted that it waged aggressive warfare. William II declared this war without 
taking his people into the slightest confidence until the final deed was done. 

The whole tendency of responsible German statesmen has been to ignore the people 
in foreign affairs. The retired chancellor, Prince von Biilow, defended this policy 
bluntly on the ground that the Germans were not capable of self-government, saying 
"We are not a political people." 

As for William II, speeches without number can be cited to show his sense of his 
own autocratic authority — e. g., speaking at Konigsberg, in 1910 — "Looking upon 
myself as the instrument of the Lord, regardless of the views and the opinions of the 
hour, I go on my way. " And another time: "There is but one master in this country; 
it is I, and I will bear no other. " He has also been very fond of transforming an old 
Latin adage, making it read: "The will of the king is the highest law." 

25 President Wilson probably had in mind such wars as those of Louis XIV, waged 
by that King almost solely for his own glory and interest and with extremely little 



18 THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 

heed to the small benefit and great suffering they brought to France. The War of the 
Spanish Succession (begun in 1701) was particularly such a war. History, of course, 
contains a great many others begun from no worthier motive, including several con- 
ducted by Prussian and earlier by Philip II of Spain. 

Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor States 
with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some 
critical posture of affairs which will give them an oppor- 
tunity to strike and make conquest. 26 Such designs can be 
successfully worked out only under cover and where no one 
has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans 
of deception or aggression, carried, it may be from genera- 
tion to generation, can be worked out and kept from the 
light only within the privacy of courts or behind the care- 
fully guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. 
They are happily impossible where public opinion commands 
and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's 
affairs. 

26 There is abundant evidence that the situation in Europe in July, 1914, was 
regarded by the German "jingo" party — Von Tirpitz, Bernhardi, et al. — as peculiarly 
favorable. Russia was busy rearming her army, and her railway system had not 
yet been properly developed for strategic purposes. France was vexed with labor 
troubles, a murder trial was heaping scandal upon one of her most famous statesmen, 
and her army was reported by her own statesmen as sadly unready. England seemed 
on the point of being plunged into a civil war by the revolt of a large fraction of Ire- 
land. 

Such a convenient crippling of all the three great rivals of Germany might never 
come again. The murder of the arch-duke of Austria at Serajevo came, therefore, 
as a most convenient occasion for a stroke which would either result in a great increase 
of Teutonic prestige or enable Germany to fight with every possible advantage. 

There is official Italian evidence that Serbia would have been attacked by the 
Teutonic powers in August, 1913, if Italy had consented to help the scheme. Her 
refusal made the Austro-German warlords wait until July, 1914, when they felt the 
situation favorable enough to be able to strike without awaiting the aid of Italy. 
(Signor Giolitti, in Italian Parliament, Dec. 5, 1914.) 

A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained 
except by a partnership of democratic nations. 27 No auto- 
cratic Government could be trusted to keep faith within it 
or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a 
partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; 
the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they 
would, and render account to no one, would be a corruption 
seated at its very heart. Only free people can hold their 
purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 19 

prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of 
their own. 28 

27 The willingness of Prussian rulers to precipitate war and to throw aside ordinary 
considerations for peace is best illustrated, of course, by the famous "Ems incident" 
of 1870. 

At that time Bismarck had decided that the quickest way to promote German 
unity and serve his political schemes was to precipitate a war with France. The 
inflamed state of public opinion in France against Prussia made the task easy for 
him. On July 13, 1870, he received a telegram from King William I, telling of an 
interview he had had with the French ambassador, about a very ticklish matter, 
and leaving it to Bismarck to decide what facts it was wise to give to the press. 

Bismarck, after consulting Von Moltke as to the state of the army, deliberately cut 
down and sharpened the wording of the telegram from the King, very moderately 
phrased, so as to make it appear that a deliberate insult had been offered the French 
ambassador, and then gave out this text of the dispatch for publication. This so 
enraged Paris public opinion, that war was immediately declared. 

Bismarck took great pride in this stroke, and the facts are related in all the standard 
German histories, as well as many others which copy them. 

Bismarck always regarded the manner in which he precipitated this war as a master- 
piece of statecraft. It remained a kind of glorious example of true public policy for 
the next generation of public men in Germany. (See the account by Bismarck 
himself in his memoirs translated as Bismarck; The Man and the Statesman. 

28 The great humanitarian aims of The Hague peace conferences of 1899 and 1907 
were the limitation of armaments and the compulsory arbitration of international dis- 
putes. Unanimity among the world powers was essential to the success of both. 
None dared disarm unless all would do so. The great democracies, Great Britain, 
France, and the United States, favored both propositions, but Germany, leading the 
opposition, prevented their adoption. She agreed with reluctance to a convention for 
optional arbitration, but refused at the second conference even to discuss disarma- 
ment. [See Scott, James Brown, The Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, I, 
index "Armaments" and "Arbitration."] 

Does not every American feel that assurance has been 
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the 
wonderful and heartening things that have been happening 
within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by 
those who knew her best to have been always in fact demo- 
cratic at heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the 
intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural 
instinct, their habitual attitude toward life. The autocracy 
that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it 
had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was 
not in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose, 29 and now 
it has been shaken off and the great generous Russian people 
have been added, in all their native majesty and might, to 
the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for 



20 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

justice, and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a league of 
honor. 

29 The whole autocratic regime has been imposed on a people whose instincts and 
institutions are fundamentally democratic. The deposed Romanoff dynasty began 
in an election among the nobles. Peter the Great and the more despotic of his succes- 
sors created largely by imitation and adaptation of German bureaucracy the machinery 
with which they ruled. Underneath this un- Russian machinery of despotism Russian 
communal and local life has preserved itself with wonderful vitality. 

During the Russian revolution of 1905-6 it was perfectly evident that the German 
Government was doing its uttermost to help the Czar and the old regime. The pasr 
sage of revolutionary exiles into Germany was constantly hindered; many were 
arrested by the Prussian police, and all who succeeded in entering Germany were 
kept under constant espionage. 

The Czar and the Kaiser were hand in glove to a large extent before the war broke 
out. The German White Paper, which was published at the outbreak of the war, 
containing telegrams which passed personally between Nicholas II and Wilhelm 
II, gives repeated appeals from one to the other as representatives of a common interest. 

One of the things that have served to convince us that 
the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our 
friend is that from the very outset of the present war it 
has filled our unsuspecting communities, and even our 
offices of government, with spies and set criminal intrigues 
everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our 
peace within and without, our industries, and our com- 
merce. 30 Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here 
even before the war began and it is unhappily not a matter 
of conjecture, but a fact proven in our courts of justice, that 
the intrigues which have more than once come perilously 
near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries 
of the country, have been carried on at the instigation, 
with the support, and even under the personal directions of 
official agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the 
Government of the United States. 

30 Besides undoubtedly many matters which from reasons of public policy the 
Government has still kept hidden, the House of Representatives Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, when it presented the war resolution following the President's mes- 
sage, went on formal record as listing at least 21 crimes or unfriendly acts committed 
upon our soil with the connivance of the German Government since the European 
war began. Among these were: 

Inciting Hindoos within the United States to stir up revolts in India, and supplying 
them with funds for that end. contrary to our neutrality laws. 

Running a fraudulent passport office for German reservists. This was supervised 
by.Capt. von Papen of the German Embassy. 

Sending German agents to England to act as spies, equipped with American pass- 
ports. 



THE WAE MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 21 

Outfitting steamers to supply German raiders, and sending them out of American 
ports in defiance of our laws. 

Sending an agent from the United States to try to blow up the International Bridge 
at Vanceboro, Me. 

Furnishing funds to agents to blow up factories in Canada. 

Five different conspiracies, some partly successful, to manufacture and place 
bombs on ships leaving United States ports. For these crimes a number of persons 
have been convicted, also Consul-General Bopp, of San Francisco (a very high Ger- 
man official accredited to the United States Government), has been convicted of 
plotting to cause bridge and tunnels to be destroyed in Canada. 

Financing newspapers in this country to conduct a propaganda serviceable to the 
ends of the German Government. 

Stirring up anti-American sentiment in Mexico and disorders generally in that 
country, to make it impossible for the United States to mix in European affairs. 

[N. B. — This last, from a humanitarian standpoint, seems peculiarly outrageous. 
Germany had not the slightest grievance against the helpless Mexicans. To incite 
them to revolt against their own Government and to make war on the United States 
simply involved their misery and probable destruction, in return for a very doubtful 
and roundabout gain for Germany. The greatest wrong was not to the United States 
but to Mexico.] 

German military usage has been quite in this spirit, however, and approves of 
such doings. (See GeiTnan War Code, standard translation, p. 85.) 

"Bribery of enemies' subjects, acceptance of offers of treachery, utilization of 
discontented elements in the population, support of pretenders and the like, are per- 
missible; indeed, international law is in no way opposed to the exploitation of crimes 
of third parties." 

This, of course, is an outrageous travesty of international law. The Hague con- 
ference declined to seem to add to the authority of a practice so repulsive by legis- 
lating upon the subject. What would the German people say of America, if our 
Government hired assassins to murder Kaiser Wilhelm or Von Hindenburg? 

Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate 
them we have sought to put the most generous interpreta- 
tion possible upon them because we knew that their source 
lay not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German 
people toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them 
as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a 
Government that did what it pleased and told its people 
nothing. But they have played their part in serving to 
convince us at last that that Government entertains no real 
friendship for us, and means to act against our peace and 
security at its convenience. 31 That it means to stir up 
enemies against us at our very doors, the intercepted note 
to the German minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence. 32 

31 A Prussianized Germany, triumphant in Europe and dominant on the seas, would 
find its occasion to strike down America in its isolation and make of us the over-seas 
tributary of a new Roman Empire. There can be no question that the future of 
democracy and of independent national life is hanging in the balance in this struggle. 



22 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

32 The famous "Zimmermann note," exposed by our Government March 1, is a 
document that should stick in the memories of all Americans. Remember, it was 
composed on January 19, 1917, at a time when Germany and America were officially 
very good friends, and the date was just three days before Mr. Wilson appeared in 
the Senate with his scheme for a league to assure peace and justice to the world. 

Zimmermann admitted the authenticity of the note, and only deplored that it had 
been discovered. The significant parts were these: 

"Berlin, January 19, 1917. 

"On February 1 we intend to begin submarine warfare unrestricted. In spite of 
this, it is our intention to keep neutral the United States of America. 

"If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis 
with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall 
give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the 
lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for 
settlement." 

The rest of the dispatch tells the German minister in Mexico to open secret nego- 
tiations with Carranza the moment war with us is certain, and to get Carranza to draw 
in Japan. 

Germany has attempted to apologize for this note by saying that it did not intend 
to do anything unless we first declared war. It is a complete retort that decent nations 
do not go around preparing schemes for the dismemberment of other nations with 
which they are at peace, and that Zimmermann 's whole proposal sprang out of an evil 
conscience, because he realized that the submarine policy projected was so vile that 
the United States could not submit to it without utter loss of self-respect, and he did 
us the justice of believing we were not such extreme cravens as to refuse to fight. 

The whole dispatch was so gross a revelation of international immorality that 
German-American papers immediately denounced it as a forgery, only to have its 
genuineness brazenly acknowledged and defended by Berlin. 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because 
we know that in such a Government, following such methods, 
we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its 
organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we 
know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for 
the democratic Governments of the world. 33 We are nov/ 
about to accept the gage of battle with the natural foe to 
liberty, and shall, if necesary, spend the whole force of the 
nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. 
We are glad now that we see the facts with no veil of false 
pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of 
the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German 
peoples included ; for the rights of nations, great and small, 
and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of 
life and of obedience. 

33 It is worthy of note that although nearly all the nations opposed to Germany 
concluded the so-called "cooling off" arbitration treaties with the United States, 
negotiated by Mr. Bryan, Germany, although indulging in certain meaningless talk 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 23 

about "approving of the principle" of arbitration, etc., declined to join in the com- 
pacts. 

There was no arbitration treaty that could be invoked when trouble arose with 
Germany. 

On March 30, 1911, the German imperial chancellor had stated openly in the 
Reichstag that no general arbitration treaty would be useful for Germany, since it 
afforded no guarantee for a permanent peace. If conditions changed, from the time 
it was made, he said, then, " every arbitration treaty will burn like tinder and end in 
smoke." (Quoted in Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, p. 33.) 

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace 
must be planted upon the tested foundations of political 
liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no 
conquests, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for our- 
selves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall 
freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights 
of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have 
been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations 
can make them. 

Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish 
object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall 
wish to share with all free people, we shall, I feel confident, 
conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and 
ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of 
right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. 34 

34 "Fair play " has small part in the Prussian military usage, however. (See German 
War Code, authorized translation, pp. 1-3 and 52.) J. Murray, London, 1915. 

' ' A war conducted with energy can not be directed merely against the combatants 
of the enemy State and the positions they occupy, but will and must in like manner 
seek to destroy the total intellectual and material resources of the latter. Humani- 
tarian claims, such as the protection of men and their goods, can only be taken into 
consideration in so far as the nature and object of the war permit." 

See also Clausewitz (the Prussian military authority and oft-quoted oracle) . Treatise 
"On War" ( Vom Kriege) V: Kap. 14 (3). 

Speaking of the desirability of crushing down an hostile country by requisitions, 
etc., he commends it because of "the fear of responsibility, punishment, and ill- 
treatment, which in such cases presses on the whole population like a general weight. " 
This recourse (of requisitions) has "no limits except those of the exhaustion, impover- 
ishment, and devastation of the country." 

By this Prussian gospel, not merely is war inevitably "hell," but it is to be made 
deliberately the lowest stratum of hell, and the means of rendering it such are to be 
worked out with scientific precision. 

I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the 
Imperial Government of Germany because they have not 
made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and 
our honor. The Austro-Htmgarian Government has, indeed,, 



24 THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

avowed its unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the 
reckless and lawless submarine warfare, 35 adopted now 
without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and 
it has therefore not been possible for this Government to 
receive Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accred- 
ited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not 
actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United 
States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at 
least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the 
authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we 
are clearly forced into it because there are no other means 
of defending our rights. 

35 Austria had a serious clash with the United States in the Ancona case late in 
1915, when Americans perished, thanks to the ruthless action of an Austrian submarine. 
In reply to American protests Austria promised to order her commanders to behave 
with humanity, and (compared, at least, to her German allies) she kept her word 
with reasonable exactness. 

On April 8, however, Austria, probably acting under German pressure, broke off 
diplomatic relations with the United States without waiting for action by our Govern- 
ment, and the same was done a little later by Germany's other obedient vassal, the 
Sultan of Turkey. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we 
act without animus, not with enmity toward a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible 
Government which has thrown aside all considerations of 
humanity and of right and is running amuck. 

We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the 
German people 36 and shall desire nothing so much as the 
early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual 
advantage between us, however hard it may be for them 
for the time being to believe that this is spoken from our 
hearts. We have borne with their present Government 
through all these bitter months because of that friendship, 
exercising a patience and forbearance which would other- 
wise have been impossible. 37 

36 There are now two Germanies — the old, noble, idealistic Germany; the new, 
hard, materialistic nation, created by Prussia. Americans would fain love and 
recall the former. 






THE WAS MESSAGE AND EACTS BEHIND IT. 25 

Here is what two of their own writers said, men jpf leadership and insight, speaking 
very shortly before the war: 

Prof. Rein, of Jena: "A one-sidedness which only esteems material values and an 
increasing control over nature is destructive in its influence, and this one-sidedness 
set in during the nineteenth century in Germany. We Germans have ceased to be 
the nation of thinkers, poets, and dreamers, we aim now only at the domination 
and exploitation of nature." 

And again Prof. Paulsen, of Berlin: "Two souls dwell in the German Nation. The 
German Nation has been called the nation of poets and thinkers, and it may be proud 
of the name. To-day it may again be called the nation of masterful combatants, as 
which it originally appeared in history." 

37 No one can accuse Mr. Wilson of the least precipitancy in bringing matters to 
an issue. Of course, on the contrary, his persistent attempts to bring the German 
Government to recognize the claims of reason and humanity have caused him to be 
bitterly criticised. Despite this criticism he has patiently and steadily held to the 
policy announced a year ago, "to wait until facts became unmistakable and were 
susceptible of only one interpretation." (Sussex note, April 18, 1916.) 

Here is a partial list of the stages in the U-boat campaign: 

1. December 24, 1914. Admiral von Tirpitz throws out hints in a newspaper inter- 
view of a wholesale torpedoing policy. He directly asks, "What will America say? " 
This was considerably before the so-called English blockade was causing Germany 
any serious food problem. 

2. February 4, 1915. German Government proclaims a war zone within which 
any ship may be sunk unwarned. 

3. February 10, 1915. Mr. Wilson tells German Government it will be held to 
"strict accountability" if any American rights are violated in this way. 

4. May 1 (dated April 22), 1915. German Embassy publishes in New York morning 
papers warning against taking passage on ships which our Government had told the 
people they had a perfect right to take. 

The Lusitania sailed at 12.20 noon, May 1. 

5. May 7, 1915. Sinking of Lusitania. 

6. May 13, 1915. Mr. Wilson's " first Lusitania " note. 

7. May 28, 1915. Germany's reply defending the sinking of the Lusitania. 

8. June 9, 1915. Mr. Wilson's "second Lusitania" note. 

9. July 21, 1915. Mr. Wilson's "third Lusitania" note (following more unsatis- 
factory German rejoinders). 

10. August 19, 1915. Sinking of the Arabic, whereupon Von Bernstorff gave an oral 
pledge for his Government that hereafter German submarines would not sink " liners" 
without warning. 

11. February. 1916. (After still more debatable sinkings) Germany makes proposals 
looking toward "assuming liability" for the Lusitania victims, but the whole case is 
soon complicated again by the "armed ship" issue. 

12. March 24, 1916. Sinking of the Sussex, passenger vessel with Americans on 
board. 

13. April 10, 1916. Germany cynically tells United States she can not be sure 
whether Bhe sunk the Sussex or not, although admitting one of her submarines was 
active close to the place of disaster. 

14. April 18, 1916. President Wilson threatens Germany with breach of diplomatic 
relations if Sussex and similar incidents are repeated. 

15. May 4, 1916. Germany grudgingly makes the promise that ships will not be 
sunk without warning. 

16. October 8, 1916. German submarine appears off American coast and sinks 
British passenger steamer Stephano with many American passengers (vacationists 
returning from Newfoundland) on board. Loss of life almost certain had not American 
men-of-war been on hand to pick up the refugees. 



2G THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 

[From this time until final break several other vessels sunk under circumstances 
which made it at least doubtful whether Germany was living up to her pledges.] 

17. January 31, 1917. Germany tears up her promises and notifies Mr. Wilson she 
will begin "unrestricted submarine war." 

18. February 3, 1917. Mr. Wilson gives Count Bernstorff his passports and recalls 
Ambassador Gerard from Berlin. 

In all modern history it may be doubted if there is another chapter displaying such 
prolonged patience, forbearance, and conciliatoriness as that shown by Mr. Wilson and 
Mr. Lansing in the face of a long course of deliberate evasion and prevarication to them 
personally, as well as outrage after outrage upon the property, and still more, upon 
the lives of very many American citizens. 

We shall happily still have an opportunity to prove that 
friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward the 
millions of men and women of German birth 38 and native 
sympathy who live among us and share our life, and we 
shall be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal 
to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of 
test. They are most of them as true and loyal Americans 
as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. 
They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and 
restraining the few who may be of a different mind and 
purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt 
with with a firm hand of stern repression; 39 but if it lifts 
its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without 
countenance except from a lawless and malignant few. 

38 On April 16, 1917, President Wilson issued a proclamation in which he asserted 
that "alien enemies" who preserved the peace, kept the laws, and gave no aid to 
the enemies of the United States "shall be undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of 
their lives and occupations, and shall be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful 
and law-abiding persons, and toward such [persons] all citizens of the United States 
are enjoined to preserve the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as 
may be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States." 

In May the Attorney General issued a statement congratulating the country on 
the friendly relations between Americans and German residents, the absence of dis- 
orders, and the necessity of interning only a very small number of persons (about 
125), an insignificant fraction of the whole number of German citizens in this country. 

At almost the same time the cables carried dispatches that the German police had 
ordered strict measures of oversight and restraint for the few Americans remaining 
in Germany, although all such persons were probably people whose ties with Ger- 
many made them almost more at home there than in their nominal country. 

39 The treason statutes of the United States have seldom been invoked, but they 
exist and posse Q s teeth. 

It is treason to "levy war against the United States, adhere to their enemies, or 
give them aid or comfort." (Ch. 1, sec. 1, Rev. Stat.) The penalty is death, or 
imprisonment for at least five years, and a fine of at least $10,000. 



THE WAR MESSAGE AND FACTS BEHIND IT. 27 

It is "misprision of treason" to know of any treasonable plots or doings and fail to 
report the same to the authorities. The penalty is seven years' imprisonment. The 
penalty for inciting a rebellion or insurrection is 10 years, and the crime of entering 
into any correspondence with a foreign government to influence it in any dispute 
with the United States, or to defeat any measures taken by our Government, calls for 
three years' imprisonment. (Ch. 1, sec. 5.) There is also a penalty of six years' 
imprisonment for any seditious conspiracy to oppose the authority of the United 
States. 

All these laws President Wilson has, by recent proclamation (Apr. 6, 1917), re- 
minded the people are in full force. 

"Giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States" has been defined in 
the courts (30 Federal Cases, No. 18272), as— 

"In general, any act clearly indicating a want of loyalty to the Government and 
sympathy with its enemies, and which by fair construction is directly in furtherance 
of their hostile designs. ' ' Such deeds are, of course, 1 liable to all the penalty of treason. 

In extreme cases also, of "rebellion and invasion" the Constitution specifically 
gives the Government power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus (Constitution, Art. I, 
sec. 9, par. 2); in other words, to arrest and imprison on mere suspicion without trial, 
and this was actually done in the Civil War. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the 
Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. 
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice 
ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful 
people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all 
wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. 

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall 
fight for the things which we have always carried nearest 
our hearts 40 — for democracy, for the right of those who 
submit to authority to have a voice in their own Govern- 
ments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a 
universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people 
as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the 
world itself at last free. 

40 Abraham Lincoln (second inaugural address, 1865) : 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God 
gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in — to bind up one another's 
wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and 
orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 

Friedrich von Bernhardi (German lieutenant general, and acceptable mouthpiece, 
not of the whole German nation, but of the Prussian military caste which holds the 
German nation in its grip) : 

"Might is at once the supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right is decided 
by the arbitrament of war" (p. 23). 

The idea is presumptuous that ' ' the weak nation is to have the same right to live 
as a powerful and vigorous nation" (p. 34). 



28 THE WAR MESSAGE AND PACTS BEHIND IT. 

"The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessedness of war as the indispensable 
and stimulating law of development must be repeatedly emphasized " (p. 37). 

"Our people must learn to feel that the maintenance of peace never can or may be 
the goal of a policy" (p. 37, "Germany and the Next War"). 

Which of these two national viewpoints is to be allowed to dominate the world? 

To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our for- 
tunes, everything that we are and everything that we have 
with the pride of those who know that the day has come 
when America is privileged to spend her blood and her 
might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness 
and the peace which she has treasured. 

God helping her, she can do no other. 



A COMPACT SUMMARY OF THE GRIEVANCES OF THE UNITED STATES 
AND THE NECESSITY OF WAR. 

Indictment of German policy by Mr. G. E. Foss, of Illinois, a 
Member of Congress (debate in House of Representatives, Apr. 6, 
1917): 

"As a reward for our neutrality what have we received at the 
hands of William II ? 

"He has set the torch of the incendiary to our factories, our work- 
shops, our ships, and our wharves. 

"He has laid the bomb of the assassin in our munition plants and 
the holds of our ships. 

"He has sought to corrupt our manhood with a selfish dream of 
peace when there is no peace. 

"He has willfully butchered our citizens on the high seas. 

"He has destroyed our commerce. 

"He seeks to terrorize us with his devilish policy of f rightfulness. 

"He has violated every canon of international decency and set at 
naught every solemn treaty and every precept of international law. 

"He has plunged the world into the maddest orgy of blood, rapine, 
and murder which history records. 

"He has intrigued against our peace at home and abroad. 

"He seeks to destroy our civilization. Patience is no longer a 
virtue, further endurance is cowardice, submission to Prussian 
demands is slavery." 

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